Internal report: Fire trucks & ambulance went wrong way to double fatal fire in Myersville, MD.

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AP:

One fire truck went the wrong way and got stuck trying to turn around. Another raced to a wrong address. And an ambulance crew blindly followed first one fire engine and then the other instead of checking directions to a burning house.

The bungled response by two volunteer fire companies didn’t cause the deaths of two little girls who perished in the ferocious blaze Jan. 31 in a rural subdivision near Myersville, but it revealed communication failures that must be addressed, a Frederick County emergency services official says.

“There’s a lot of lessons,” Fire and Rescue Services Division Director Tom Owens told The Frederick News-Post (http://bit.ly/14QalCM ). The newspaper reported Thursday on the agency’s written analysis of the incident. 

Madigan Lillard, 3, and her 6-year-old sister Sophie died of smoke inhalation in the blaze. Four other family members received medical care, including 8-year-old Morgan, who spent eight days in a burn unit at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington.

Their house near the base of South Mountain, about 55 miles west of Baltimore, was destroyed in the accidental fire. The blaze began when drapes came in contact with a baseboard heater, investigators found.

County officials said the fire and ambulance crews should have grabbed printed directions to the fire or consulted maps in their vehicles. Owens said his agency is moving some dispatch printers from firehouse offices to spots more readily accessible to firefighters in a hurry.

Fire and Rescue Services spokesman Michael Dmuchowski said it’s not clear why the Myersville Volunteer Fire Company fire engine didn’t take the most direct route to the fire, about three miles away. Instead it took an indirect route, missed a turn and got stuck trying turn around. A tow truck was summoned and the engine arrived at the fire on Highland Avenue at 12:25 a.m., 65 minutes after it was dispatched.

The report was more critical of a Middletown Volunteer Fire Department crew that turned onto similarly named Highland Court and laid out a fire hose before realizing the burning house, though visible, was on another street. The error cost them several minutes in getting in position to fight the fire. The report attributed the mistake to “tunnel vision” by the excited crew. Their leader should have looked at a map, the report said.

The report faulted the ambulance crew, part of the Myersville company, for “blindly” following the Myersville engine and then the Middletown truck instead of relying on their own printed directions. The same ambulance got blocked in at the fire scene and couldn’t transport a patient until several other vehicles were moved, the report said.

Dmuchowski said officials are trying to determine whether any disciplinary action is needed.

Owens said the problems didn’t prevent a rescue of the trapped girls, the only people left inside when firefighters arrived to find the second floor of the burning house almost completely collapsed.

“When you compare it with the pre-arrival photographs, how intense, how rapidly the fire had spread, even before 911 was called, and what the autopsy revealed about the cause of death, when you put all those things together, we do not believe that the outcome would have been any different,” Owens said.

The girls’ aunt, Becky Lillard Pomato, declined to comment Thursday on the report. She said the family is focusing on healing and building a playground park as a memorial to Sophie and Madigan.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Brian Englar, Frederick News Post: 

Myersville Engine 82 turned from U.S. 40 onto Hollow Road after overshooting Harmony Road, which intersects Highland Avenue.

The engine became stuck trying to turn around and a heavy-duty tow truck was called to remove it. The engine arrived at 12:25 a.m., 65 minutes after it was dispatched.

Ambulance 89 followed Engine 82 until the crew realized they were heading in the wrong direction and followed Middletown Engine 72 to the scene. Engine 72 briefly went to the wrong location at 11:28 p.m. when it turned on Highland Court. The crew had laid out their supply line before realizing they were on the wrong street. Engine 72’s error caused a delay of several minutes getting in position to fight the fire, the report states.

“There is no excuse for responding to an incorrect location when the CAD (computer-aided dispatch) printer is working properly and they can get a copy of the printed location prior to response,” the report states. “The county is looking into printing more than one copy of the CAD information when stations are alerted for multiple unit response so all units can have a copy, not just one.”

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